Clearing The Fog
by LukeAndLorelai Brucas Fan
Summary: He woke up in the rain, without any knowledge of who or where he was. Reiley needs to regain hos memory and find a way beck to Kate before he loses her forever. Set after S7 final.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I was watching Season 7 recently and when I got to th final I was just so upset, because I love Riley and I was desperatly hoping he would come bac.k. But we've only got two disks left of season 8 and Kate's already gone and I'm rapidly losing hope. But since I just can't leave thngs alone - and I know I'm not alone - this is what I've been left with.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

The first thing he noticed was that it was raining. Not too heavily, but he was being hit lightly all over his face and body.  
Next he realised that he was lying on a patch of very wet grass and that rushing sound in his ears was more water. A river close to where he lay.  
"Hello?" he called out as he struggled to sit up. "Hello? Is there anyone here?" he yelled, his hands cupped around his mouth. "Is anybody there?" he pushed himself off the ground and stumbled a few feet along the river bank, listening for any reply, any sound other than the rushing water.  
"Where am I?" he muttered to himself, turning in a circle. Nothing stood out.  
Tree's, grass, either side of the river looked eactly the same. There were no houses, no fenceline that he could see. He decided to stick close to the water.  
If he followed it long enough he would surely come across someone who could point him in the direction of home.  
"Home?" he wondered aloud. "Where is home?"  
He walked slowly, unaware he'd forgotten one other important question.  
_Run._  
With one word in his mind, he began to do just that, until the question that needed to be asked, pushed it's way into his mind.  
_'Who am I?_


	2. Chapter 2

He had been washed a long way down the river. At least that's what he thought. Because by the time he found a person to ask about what had happened to him, they didn't recognise him, and had no information on where he had come from.  
But they did give him a warm bed for the night. A change of clothes and a hot meal where also offered and graciously accepted before he headed back out, on his way to continue trying to find home.  
The family he had stayed with that night owned a small property in Smithfeild. They didn't know him and he couldn't recognise anyone else he saw as he was taken into town by Mathew Gray.  
Jill, Mathew's wife, didn't want him to leave. She got him settled in that first night and in the morning told him that there was room for him to stay as long as he needed.  
But there was something telling him that he didn't have time to do that.  
_Run. Run. Run._  
Lee - that's what he'd told them to call him when he couldn't figure out what his name was - didn't know why, but every so often something in his mind kept saying 'run'  
It didn't make sense.  
He didn't understand what it was he was supposed to be running from.  
He didn't understand anything.

Lee spent a few days moving around Smithfeild, and found a kind farmer who didn't mind driving him to a neighbouring town when they had business to attend to in that direction.  
From Smithfeild he headed to Spencer.  
He knew he had to get some work, knew he couldn't survive on nothing.  
As it turned out there was a lot of work going, because there had been a massive storm a couple of days back.  
"Maybe that's why you don't know who you are?" Johno Robertson suggested. Lee met Johno in a pub when he was trying to rustle up some work and he was told that there was heaps of properties around that needed help.  
It got Lee thinking anyway. Maybe the storm did have something to do with his memory loss. He had woken up out side in the rain after all.  
He found himself at Carmichael's. They bred horse's there and Lee took to the work really easily. He did basic duties to begin with, mucking out yards, feeding, watering and brushing down the horses.  
But as it turned out, Lee had a real aptitude for the work.  
"Mr Carmichael, you wouldn't have a map handy with nearby properties on it, would you?" he asked, after working a couple of weeks with the horses.  
"You still haven't figured it out then, I suppose?"  
"Not yet. But I'm hoping that if I see some more names of places, it might jog my memory. I'm pretty sure I had something to do with horses too, wherever it was that I was living."  
"Yeah, well, I'd be sorry to lose you, you sure know your way around the beasts, but if you do figure it out, it'd be best you headed on back, I reckon. Probably got a family at home, worried sick about you."  
"Hear's hoping."  
"I'll make sure that map's out for you later tonight."  
"That'd be real great. Thanks mate."  
Lee continued his day, working easier now that he had something to look forward too.  
And later that night as he studied the properties all around, Kinsella's, Angorichina, Anna Creek, Killarney, Nimboona Downs, Drover's Run, another name popped into his head.  
_Kate._


	3. Chapter 3

_Run. Kate. Run._  
The two words were all Lee needed to carry on.  
He spent every night pouring over the map, studying the properties. It had been a month since he woke up on the riverbank and wasn't much closer to finding home.  
Everytime he thought of Kate though he tried to figure out who she was, what she meant to him and whether or not she was worried about him.  
And then one night he had a dream.  
_There was a horse running wildly along a dirt road, passed a sign above a letterbox, but he couldn't see much of it, just the bottom with the name 'T.C. McLeod.  
Next he saw horse yards, smaller than those at Carmichael's, but still well maintained.  
Then as he listened to the rain beat down on the roof, Lee watched himself kiss a woman on the cheek /i/ Kate /i/ and head out the door after winking at her._

He woke with a start as his mind rapidly filled with memories.  
His name was Riley Ward, he lived and worked at Kilarney. He'd spent time in the army and loved horses.

_There was so much water. Everywhere, everything was so wet. He couldn't quite tell where he was, all he knew was that he was under water and he needed to get out.  
The water was so dark and unclear, it stung when he opened his eyes so he had to close them straight away.  
Feeling with his hands he managed to unbuckle his seat belt and push his way out of the driver's side door.  
Reiley began floating down the river. He wanted to call out to Grace, Patrick, to Taylor, but he couldn't. He needed to get back to see Kate again, but he was to weak to fight the current.  
"Reiley!" he could hear... Grace calling to him, but he couldn't call back, couldn't get to shore, find her and say he was alright. So he just continued floating downstream with the current; one thought on his mind, getting back to Drover's Run as soon as possible._

Riley - he now knew why he thought his name was Lee - had to get back to Kate. Had to tell her how he felt.  
"First thing," he decided. "First thing tomorrow I'm going to Drover's Run."


	4. Chapter 4

Riley arrived as Kate stood out the front of the shearer's quarter's. She stood looking at her home, with two bags laying at her feet.  
Riley watched her as she moved back towards the doorway and began pulling at a horseshoe above the door.  
She grumbled in aggrivation when it wouldn't come down and turned to head up to the tool shed.  
But she didn't get that far.  
Riley had already been through the 'Oh my God! I'm seeing a ghost.' routine with the other Drover's girls, - he wasn't sure if Tayler would ever let go when she hugged him - so he was expecting the face that Kate made the second she saw him.  
"I reckon you've probably gotten even more beautiful since the last time I saw ya Kate" Riley explained as Kate blinked at him, bringing a hand up to hold in a scream.  
"Riley..?"  
"Yeah, it's me. I hear I gave yiz all a bit of a scare, hey? Sorry 'bout that."  
"But you... Everyone told me to give up. They said you... Where have you been?"  
"Yeah, not too far away. Couple towns over. I must have hit my head in the accident or something, coz I couldn't even remember me own name for a while there. But I hightailed it back here as soon as I did. Couldn't wait another second to see you."  
"Me?"  
"Yeah. There was somethhin I forgot to tell you at Christmas. Wanted to do it as soon as possible."  
Kate still didn't move or speak, she just waited for Riley to continue.  
"I love you Kate."  
Letting out a small cry, Kate ran the few feet between them and threw her arms around him.  
"I was so scared... I thought I'd lost you. I looked everywhere, I searched the river but you-"  
"I'm so sorry about that."  
"I love you. I love you, please, don't ever leave me again!"  
"Never. I love you Kate Manfreidi. I'm not going anywhere without you ever again."  
Kate tightened her grip on him, afraid to let go, in case it turned out to all be a dream. Again.  
Then he kissed her.  
This kiss was even better than their previous kisses, because they both knew how the other person felt.  
Suddenly Kate pulled back, still holding Riley's face in her hands.  
"I have to go." she announced and he laughed.  
"Yeah, Stevie told me you were leavin'. Where are you going?"  
"Saint Gabriel's fields. It's a program for wayward kid's. They learn dicipline through farm work. The new priest in Gungellan set it up for me after you..."  
"Ok, ok. Nah, that's fine. Have you got room for one more?"  
Kate smiled finally, and Riley realised how much he'd been missing that sight, even when he didn't know who he was, he'd missed her.  
"Of course. I'll find you something to do. Something that doesn't involve yabbies." she added in a darker tone.  
"Kate, don't worry about that. That whole night it was... Well I don't think it was such a bad thing."  
"Everyone thought you were dead. How was it not a bad thing?"  
"Well, it made me realise how much I care about you, made me want to be with you more than I've ever wanted anything."  
Kate realised she was crying now, tears running down her face, and she had no way to stop them.  
"Shh, it's ok. Everything's ok. Don't cry now, I'm fine."  
"I know. It's just that... I'd already prepared myself to forget about you, and now you're back. I don't want to have to do that again."  
"You won't have to. I promise." she nodded, swallowed the lump in her throat and swiped at her tears. "We'll go off to your farm and boss around those kids. It'll be good practice for our six on our own property hey?" Kate laughed and kissed Riley again.  
"I can't wait." she whispered. They held hands and each lifted one of her bags before walking back to the homestead together, to say goodbye to their friends before heading off into their lives together.

AN: Ok, so I know that was really sappy and, well, just awful, but I had to write it. It's done now thouh, so those of you who really thought it was bad, just continue your lives pretending you never saw it.


End file.
